New law regarding youth sports concussions raises questions

Legislature to eliminate criminal penalties, compliance reliant upon honor system

Apr. 21, 2013

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CentralOhio.com

Starting Friday, if young Johnny or Jane suffers a concussion while playing youth sports, he or she must be removed permanently from that game at least for the day.

Under Ohio’s new concussion law, which takes effect this week, it will be up to coaches, league officials, referees and parents to ensure that happens. But making such adults do what is right will be based on the honor system more than anything else.

Cameron McNamee, injury prevention policy specialist at the Ohio Department of Health, said the main focus of the law is to educate people about how to respond to head injuries suffered by children. He said neither his department, nor any state department, has the responsibility for enforcing compliance.

“The state is not going to be cracking down on folks and throwing individuals in jail for not complying,” he said.

But the current law does provide the option for criminal charges for negligence — something lawmakers are trying to change.

Rep. Jay Hottinger, R-Newark, sponsored House Bill 16 to remove any criminal liability sanctions for coaches, parents and referees who don’t comply with the concussion bill. In a worst case scenario, this could result in someone getting 30 days in jail, Hottinger said, which could act as a deterrent to adults willing to donate their time to youth sport leagues.

“The last thing anybody wants is to have volunteer coaches, referees and officials to be subject to criminal penalties,” he said.

Even medical professionals see criminal penalties as a bad idea.

“You are going to create an environment where anyone would be afraid to be near the field,” said Dr. Jonathon Faber, at MedCentral Sports Medicine in Mansfield.

Voluntary compliance

Faber provides primary care sports medicine, including seeing kids suffering from concussions. He said he supports the state law’s effort to enhance awareness and education, but agrees that criminal penalties are too harsh.

Hottinger said the “error” in the first legislation has been noticed by trial attorneys across the state looking to take advantage of it should it not be changed. Although changing it wouldn’t stop civil actions — “anybody can sue anybody,” Hottinger said — it would eliminate the prospect of someone missing a concussion sign and being guilty of a misdemeanor.

Cameron said fear of lawsuits serves as pretty good motivation for people to comply with the rules, which he thought likely would be followed voluntarily by the vast majority of people regardless.

Doug Hare, president of the Central Ohio Youth Baseball League, said communication about the new law wasn’t great — he didn’t learn about it until a month ago. Since then, he’s worked to ensure the coaches of his 400 teams across much of the state are in compliance. His umpires must be high school certified, so they were already covered, he said.

Having every single league in compliance by this month likely will be difficult, Hare concedes, and he hoped the state would grant some leniency as league officials work to be in compliance.

“Getting information out to all teams in the league is a pretty big task,” Hare said.

He agreed criminal charges seem too harsh, but the state needs to do something to ensure everyone is following the rules. Hare said his league’s liability insurance policy already was fairly robust, so he was not concerned about increasing it because of the law.

Faber agreed most people will want to comply with the law, saying he sees less and less of the mentality of pushing kids to play through injuries. With children as young as 11 suffering the injury, Faber said parents and coaches are realizing concussions not only affect a child’s ability in athletics, but also in school.

No law can completely eliminate head collisions and concussions, Cameron said. By being vigilant about identifying when it happens, the law hopefully will prevent children from suffering a second injury too quickly, which can often be debilitating.

“The point of the law is to really encourage proper healing time for youth athletes,” he said. “There’s not an exact science. It really is very individualized.”

Although similar bills eliminating criminal charges have passed both the House and Senate unanimously, one of the chambers must pass the other’s bill for it to go to the governor, Hottinger said. There is little opposition to doing so, but he said the focus on the governor’s budget has dominated legislators’ schedules for the past several weeks.

If no action happens by Friday, there could be a “brief window” when youth league officials could be criminally liable if they don’t comply with the law, Hottinger said. He said he hopes that does not happen.

“It should be pretty easy to expedite one of two bills in the other chamber,” he said. “It’s just a matter of timing.”

Concussion law rules

Concussion law rules

House Bill 143, which takes effect Friday, requires several efforts to improve concussion awareness. Here are a few:

• A youth sports organization must provide the concussion and head injury information sheet made available by the state health department to the parents of its athletes.

• Each coach or referee for a youth sports organization must either have a pupil activity permit from the Department of Education or have successfully completed, within the previous three years, a training program in recognizing the symptoms of concussions and head injuries.

• Requires a coach, referee or official of a youth sports organization to remove from practice or competition an athlete who exhibits signs, symptoms or behaviors consistent with having sustained a concussion or head injury and prohibits the coach, referee or official from allowing the athlete to return to competition that day.

• Prohibits a coach, referee or official of a youth sports organization from allowing a removed athlete to return to practice or competition until the athlete has been assessed and cleared for return by a physician or other licensed health care provider authorized by the youth sports organization.

Source: Ohio Legislative Service Commission

Signs of caution for parents

Signs of caution for parents

Here are some symptoms of concussions parents or guardians should look for.

• Appears dazed or stunned

• Is confused about assignment or position

• Moves clumsily

• Answers questions slowly

• Loses consciousness, even briefly

• Shows behavior or personality changes

• Can’t recall events before or after hit or fall

Source: Ohio Department of Health

Concussion quiz

Concussion quiz

Coaches, referees and league officials must complete a training program to recognize the signs of concussions. Here are a few sample questions from the courses promoted by the Ohio Department of Health.

1) Forty percent of players who died or have serious long-term problems were still having symptoms from a previous concussion. Which of the following will least likely decrease the risks of death or serious long-term problems from concussion?

• Adequate recovery time

• Follow appropriate "Return to Play" protocols

• Being educated on the dangers of playing with symptoms of concussion

• Having a MRI of the brain

• Delaying the return to school

2) Which of the following would be considered danger signs of a severe concussion and require rushing an athlete to the emergency department immediately?

• The athlete seems slightly off balance, complains of a headache, did not lose consciousness, but just “isn’t feeling right.”

• The athlete lost consciousness, has slightly slurred speech, and seems to become increasing more confused and restless.

• The athlete complains of a headache and appears slightly dazed or stunned.